spine-tail
[spine n.1]
1. Ornith. One or other of several birds of unrelated genera characterized by their stiff, spine-like or mucronate tail-feathers.
| 1839 Audubon Syn. Birds N. Amer. 33 Chætura, Spine-tail. Ibid., Chætura pelasgia, American Spine-tail. c 1880 Cassell's Nat. Hist. IV. 111 The third family of the Mesomyodi, or Songless Birds, the Spine-tails (Dendrocolaptidæ). 1890 Cent. Dict., Orthonyx, a remarkable Australian genus of passerine birds; the spinetails. 1891 Ibid., Spine-tail, the ruddy duck, Erismatura rubida. 1893 W. H. Hudson La Plata 371 Small Spine-tail [Synallaxis phryganophila] and Nest. |
b. attrib. in spine-tail grouse, spine-tail swift.
| 1884 Coues N. Amer. Birds 457 Chæturinæ, Spine-tail Swifts. Ibid. 580 Centrocercus,..Spine-tail Grouse. |
2. Ichth. (See quots.)
| 1851 Gosse Nat. Hist., Fishes 147 Teuthididæ. (Spine-tails.) Ibid. 148 In form and general appearance the Spine-tails resemble the Chætodons. |